Art for Kanye West’s Yeezus is released

The melted gold motif might have been replaced with something more spartan.

Radio 1xtra presenter / Def Jam UK A&R man DJ Semtex posted the above flyer, saying, “Forget everything else you have seen, this is the official artwork. No cover, booklet, just a sticker on the reverse of the package with the track list.” This follows a similar pronouncement from Kanye associate / A.P.C. founder Jean Touitou (in a tweet that has since been deleted). As has been pointed out by Pitchfork and others, the bare packaging resembles that of Mos Def’s 2006 album True Magic.

Earlier this month, Kanye’s girlfriend Kim Kardashian shared an Instagram image with the hashtag #Yeezus that purported to be the cover art; the image also cropped up on a pre-order page at KanyeWest.com, although it has now been removed.

Yeezus is due out on June 18, and while Kanye performed ‘Black Skinhead’ and ‘New Slaves’ on SNL, there have been no announcements regarding single releases to precede the album release.

Update: A Def Jam rep has confirmed to Pitchfork that this is the official album art for Yeezus. Head to KanyeWest.com and hear a sample that is possibly on the album. In addition, more projections have been scheduled for this weekend (although the site is getting hammered, predictably.